1938 Alfa Romeo 6c 2300 Jankovits

Product no.: tro77

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This Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 has a really remarkable history. The initiator of the project was Vittorio Jano, who developed a mid-engined sports car on the instructions of Italy's head of state Benito Mussolini, for whom the supremacy of German racing cars was a thorn in the side. He left the construction of the most aerodynamic body possible to the brothers Gino (architect) and Oscar (engineer) Jankovits from Fiume (Italy), now Rijeka / Croatia. They traded automobiles and motorcycles in Austria-Hungary and were personally friends with Jano.

 

To realize the project, a corresponding mid-engine chassis was prepared in Arese and shipped to Fiume. There was also a lively exchange of parts later. For the aerodynamic shape of the highly modern pontoon body, the services of aerodynamics guru Paul Jaray were also secured. When the prototype was completed in 1937, Jano had just been fired, which is why the 6C 2300 Aerodinamica Spider remained with the Jankovits brothers and was only used in a few insignificant races in Brno, Budapest and northern Italy.

 

The car has a three-part windshield, windshield wipers, bumper, horn, blinker and heater and served the Jankovits brothers as a road vehicle. Presumably, therefore, it was the world's first mid-engine roadster. After the communists came to power in Yugoslavia, the car then served as an escape vehicle on December 24, 1946, with which the Jankovits drove under the border tree to Italy in a spectacular operation. The refugees were fired at, which left dents in the sheet steel at the rear. The roadster later went to a civilian employee of the US Army, who took the car to the US. There the vehicle turned up in 1967 in the "Vintage Car Store" in Nyack, New York. It was bought by the Irish car dealer Malcolm Templeton, who brought the car back to Europe in 1976. Alfa Romeo chronicler Luigi Fusi finally discovered the vehicle and even wanted to buy it back for the Jankovits brothers, but the car had already been sold to Neil Crabb. He passed the prototype on to Phil Bennett, who loaned it to the National Motor Museum Beaulieu, Sussex, for a while. Around the year 2000, two further changes of ownership took place, the first of which brought the car back to Italy. A complete restoration took place later, which returned the car to its prototype state. Today the car is based in Germany and can be admired in the Auto + Technik Museum in Sinsheim.

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